1. Field
The following description relates to a robot for inspecting pipelines, for example, to a robot for inspecting pipelines, the robot capable of performing up-and-down motions, motions of rotating in place, and motions of crossing obstacles outside the pipelines.
2. Description of Related Art
Pipeline facilities are one of various infrastructure, and are distributed nationwide just like blood vessels in a human body, and are established as an origin of supply of various energy resources. These pipelines are being corroded as time goes by and deteriorating due to external environments, causing small and large pipeline accidents every year, and thus regular inspection and replacement of pipelines are necessary.
However, due to lack of manpower and technology, systematic and regular inspections are not being made in reality.
Especially, in the case of pipelines used in nuclear power plants, there is risk due to radiation leakage, but inspections are being made by men taking the risk of being exposed to radiation for the sake of conducting strict inspections.
If inspections could be conducted by robots, it would be able to inspect the condition of nuclear power plants without taking the risk of being exposed to radiation, and thus there has been need for ways to inspect pipelines using robots.
However, developing robots for inspecting pipelines so far concentrated on embodying motions of moving along curved ducts, and there has been no robot capable of performing motions, rotating motions and crossing of obstacles motions outside the pipelines, and thus robots could not be applied to the related field, which has been a problem.